The Revenger's High: Keiji Reshi vs Riyan Uchiha
Have you ever felt what it was like to be excited? To feel that evergrowing tension inside you accompanied by the tension brought on by an expected event? Have you ever known what it was like to truly feel that sense of importance, that your next move may be something to deliver a great blow to the future? It is a gift to the mind that is greatly under-appreciated. To the gentle heart, it is nothing more than the hidden expression of fear and paranoia, to have that tension grip the very threads of your nervous system. It is the weight that begins to press and press into your heart, until it finally surrenders to the horrifying pressure and crushes inward. It is the blade that will never be removed from your chest, to stay there even after you have died. To gentle hearts, it is nothing more than a monster. But to the ones who reject that kindness... to the ones that are willing to reject morality and embrace the shames and distateful acts of society in order to do their duty, it is a natural gift that is bestowed upon you by God himself. To the deceptive mind, it is something that comes with forethought, the pet that accompanies and entertains their master during their living days. To the ones who emit nothing more than resentment and hatred, it fuels the sense of satisfaction that one holds when they eventually complete their goal. This... is known as the revenger's "high". And for Konoha-ANBU member Keiji Reshi, it was exactly what he was feeling. He moved himself like a ghost, a shadow under the cover of night. Despite the chill around his body, all he could feel was that high, that cold fury that burned through his chest. In the moonlight, his eyes seemed to blanken, putting out nothing but an emotionless and machine-like facade. Up ahead of him, he could sense the foreign chakra signature he so whole-heartedly bloodlusted after. "You don't have to do this..." "You know what they did can't just go away...." His gloved hand reached out to grip the hilt of his katana, and he sped forward with what seemed like inhuman speed. Riyan was nearing Konoha. He felt that the time had finally come to capture Nine-Tails and take his revenge on the Hidden Leaf Village. He slowly raised his head to take in the fresh forest air. Already he sensed Konoha's tension. There was one a few yards ahead and, judging by its movement, it was one of Konoha's Black Ops. Riyan reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of shuriken. He then proceeded to charge them with his Lighting-chakra and toss them in the direction of the moving target. At first, it seemed as if Keiji had not bothered to see them, for he made no move in order to dodge it. His hand slowly reached up towards his head, where his Konoha forehead protector was so comfortably placed. There was a tingling sensation in that hand - what he held was what he stood for, what he had remained so fiercely loyal to, even through its destruction. His next move would've seemed like a crime. With a solid tug, he ripped off that headband and tossed it at the oncoming kunai as soon as he saw the glint of lightning. The effects were instant; the electricity was instantly atracted and diverted towards the metal of the protector. With his way now cleared, he put in a final burst of speed and ripped through to the opening where his target stood. Or, rather - crouch in his shadow. As he looked over his shoulder, his eyes, although half-lidded, were narrowed in a calmly dangerous glare. His katana was poised to strike like a snake upon a mouse, the tip pointed over the shoulder. His soft lips only spoke a few words, allowing them to echo in the man's ears. "I guess the years have changed you somewhat... Uchiha Riyan." Riyan's move was also incredibly fast. He quickly drew his blade and clashed with the Anbu's poised blade, his Sharingan surfacing on his eyes, "More than you can imagine, you Konoha dog." "The time is now..." he thought to himself. He had been preparing since he was twelve for this day. This Anbu would be the first person in Konoha to taste his revenger's high. The weapon of the Uchiha's blood had been pulled out and pointed at his head. He felt his hands tremble with excitement, but not of the thought of battle. Had he been overriden by that emotion, he would've been stupid enough to look directly into Riyan's eyes. "Yes... come on, you traitor..." He thought, a sneer under his mask. With one of his hands, he reached out and gripped Riyan's sword while his own blade was still locked with it, grasping it tightly as to not let go. "Use your Sharigan... it'll let me crush those eyes you value so greatly." Then, like a conduit conducting electricity, Keiji's chakra began to flow through the sword and Riyan's arm, hitting the body with all of its potency. He had never experienced his own jutsu before, of course. But he knew what the man could possibly be experiencing right now - intense and nerve-wracking pain, the feeling of one's organs being put through a meat grinder. That fact only made him even more eager to spill blood. With his gripping hand, he pushed Riyan's blade to the side, lifted his own in a sleek movement, and swung down as hard as he could, down to the Uchiha's skull. Riyan's hair fell over his eyes as he was pushed aside, but a grin curled up on his face, "Chidori...Stream." he whispered to himself, expelling an immense amount of lighting-chakra from his body for protection as he rolled away from Keiji's blade. He again stood and dusted himself off and re-angling his blade to face his opponent, "This one is quirky. It should be a nice warm up." he said inwardly. A loathsome sense of impression was felt by Keiji, his eyes narrowing, and a slight scowl forming on his face. Despite what he had done, his opponent hadn't seemed to show one sign of pain. Then again, he hadn't expected his victory to come so easily with just a few moves. Those were the thoughts of one without experience. For a brief moment, he settled into his own stance, the tip pointed like a gun barrel at Riyan, showing concentration in his body posture. Then, he rose the hilt and plunged the blade straight down, falling to a kneeling position with both hands gripped upon his katana. The metal began to glow a bright white, before... BOOM! A powerful shockwave was released from it, spreading outwards from its master and to a sizable distance. And his opponent was right in its path. Riyan closed his eyes briefly, and then forced them open, wide. A version one, Demon Ox Cloak formed around him with six tails and restrained the shockwave. When the blast subsided, the cloak retreated within him and he returned to normal. He then gritted his teeth, "Do you truly remember who I am? I walk the path of the lone Uchiha now. The last one, who has gained the final powers of my clan's lineage... You've trampled on my ancestors' pride... their dream... And you will pay the price! As the last remaining Uchiha, I will put a stop to you here and now!" "Pride...?" The very statement made Keiji's hands tighten violently around the blade, a new rush of anger coursing through his heated veins. "You have no right to talk about PRIDE!" He snarled, his voice almost animalistic in nature. "Unless, your sense of pride would encourage the slaughter of all of those people, innocent of your pain! The only thing I have EVER done is watch you take those lives for two times... and never do anything to stop it. But I can promise you... I WILL WATCH NO MORE!!" He let loose another violent chakra shockwave, almost fueled by his newfound hatred. His body posture, after releasing it, began to straighten in the slightest way, though his hands were kept on the hilt of his katana. "Every living person in Konoha is guilty. Even you. You stand here, poised to kill me to obtain peace. The people of this village will sacrifice anything...even the life of a child...to obtain such peace. I have NO mercy for those who selfishly look for peace. If you call my quest a quest for my own peace, you are wrong. For even if my revenge is gained, I will live in turmoil forever more. But. We have one thing in common. You and I both are currently facing the one that embodies everything we stand against...and we will do anything to obtain revenge on that person." Riyan replied, regaining his stance, "In that, I understand you." Riyan formed Chidori in his palm and focused it into a sphere. Then, with his free hand, he spun a shell of chakra around the Chidori and began to add his Wind Release to the technique until he at last held a small glowing sphere of elemental chakra, "Thunder Break." he said plainly. "It's almost painful." he told the Anbu silently, "I too use to believe in that village...in the Will of Fire..but that was broken, right before my eyes." He then vanished and appeared right behind the man, thrusting his jutsu for the man's skull. Immediately, the current of anger was stopped, and Keiji's eyes widened in astonishment at the man's words. One of his hands reached out instinctively behind him, upon feeling the chilling chakra that had re-appeared to his back. He could practically feel the heat of the lightning, the cry of the thousand birds that sought to kill him. And there was one thing that kept him from accepting the guillotine from falling. His own instincts. SPLURCH! The Chidori, although having only sideswiped his arm, had managed to partially rip through his forearm. He could not ignore the warm blood dripping down the other part of his arm, nor could he push aside the spike of pain ripping through his shoulder. His breath was quivering, signaling it. However, his hand now gripped Riyan's wrist once more, in defiant refusal to let go. He only spoke two words to his enemy, enough to acknowledge him. "Well said." Then, he let loose one final shockwave from his sword. However, being in such close proximety, it had no effect on the Uchiha before him. But in another swift move, Keiji yanked the sword out of the ground and pushed backwards to send the Uchiha off balance. His razor-sharp katana raised itself and pointed directly towards the chest, where the heart was so rapidly beating. Then, he thrust inwards, the blade reaching out for the kill-switch. "Shit! No time for seals! One option left...Kamui!" he yelled within his mindscape, as his eyes switched to their Eternal Mangekyō from. The area where Keiji's blade was collapsed in on itself, sucking the entire sword in before closing. Riyan clutched his eye in pain, and stood back up. "Holy sh--!!!" Startled by the sudden use of the Sharingan's shift and ability used, Keiji's eyes widened, and he yanked his hand back as if it had been put into a fire. He landed himself in a crouched position, glancing down at his hands for a minute in order to confirm his weaponless state. He gritted his teeth in annoyance - now he was one killing weapon short. He took in a deep breath, raising his head back towards his opponent with narrowed eyes. Then, he took two kunai and held them defensively across his chest. Then, his hands glowed, and without warning, chakra was forming around the blades. It had formed into two perfect katana-like swords, ready to shred Riyan to pieces. He chuckled, allowing himself to stare into Riyan's crimson eyes. "The Mangekyō, hm?" He muttered. "I suppose I can't drag this out for longer, either..." Then, bringing one of those blades back, he sliced at the ground, unleashing a fissure of wind that sped like a bullet towards Riyan once more. Riyan smirked, "You got overconfident." he chuckled, as a black backdrop with two blazing Sharingan eyes appeared behind the Anbu man, revealing that when the man had looked into Riyan's crimson eyes, he had been caught in a genjutsu. The illusion seemingly melted, and Riyan was really behind the man, with a Chidori Sharp Spear speeding for the back of the man's neck. That brought an equal, and amused smirk across Keiji's face, crinkling his mask up a bit. "On the contrary... I was quite prepared for that. With that smirk of yours..." Then, just millimeters before the spear could reach his body, Riyan's own head was suddenly assaulted with a pain that practically seared the very innards of his brain. It attacked relentlessly and ruthlessly, the genjutsu world starting to disrupt. Keiji huffed, turning towards Riyan (or what could've been another illusion) with a slight frown and narrowed eyes. "Recall those three shockwaves I had sent into the ground..." He explained calmly. "Those weren't simply meant to knock you down and crush you. They were a setup... for a jutsu specifically designed to combat powerful illusions like these." On the ground was what looked like a circle containing a star, the shape just large enough for intense close-quarters. It glowed a brilliant blue, though not brilliant enough to blind either of them. "When the technique is activated, and a genjutsu falls on me, then its user will experience violent mental pains. As long as you keep it on me, you will remain in your tormented state. So save yourself..." He once again raised his swords. "...and release this illusion... fight me head on, Uchiha!"